Study of thermal properties of the metastable supersaturated vapor with the restricted ensemble

The pressure and internal energy data at different densities of the supersaturated Argon vapor at the reduced temperatures 0.7 and 0.8 are obtained by the restricted canonical ensemble Monte Carlo simulation method [D.S. Corti, P. Debenedetti, Chem. Eng. Sci. 49 (1994) 2717]. In order to maintain the system in its one-phase state, different constraints on the density fluctuations have been imposed, varying with densities approaching and beyond the spinodal. The results are comparable with a molecular dynamics simulation study [A. Linhart, C.C. Chen, J. Vrabec, H. Hasse, J. Chem. Phys. 122 (2005) 144506] on the same system. The current study verifies the conclusion drawn by the simulation work that clustering of Argon atoms exists even in the vicinity of the spinodal. Compared with molecular dynamics simulations, our method can give the equilibrium properties of a metastable fluid, for example internal energies.